


Some Twist of Fate

by RikaNeedsCoffee



Series: Some People are Stupid [1]
Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: Bad Parenting, Fluff, High School, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Tbh they don't really end up together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-02-12
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:02:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22676830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RikaNeedsCoffee/pseuds/RikaNeedsCoffee
Summary: It's all coincidence really, until it isn't, and somehow Gakushuu finds that he and Karma get along far better than he'd initially anticipated.
Relationships: Akabane Karma & Asano Gakushuu, Akabane Karma/Asano Gakushuu
Series: Some People are Stupid [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1663270
Comments: 17
Kudos: 260





	Some Twist of Fate

By some horrible twist of fate, the two of them are paired up for their first major Biology project of the schoolyear.

Well.

Actually, it isn't that, because not only is the concept of fate too untangible and unrealistic to believe in, it's also plainly stupid. Really, it's more along the lines of an increasingly frustrating set of coincidences that lead up to a literal demon spawn born from the fiery pits of hell itself sitting cross-legged on his desk chair and rummaging through his drawers.

"For the fifth and hopefully final time, Akabane, stop snooping through my things," Gakushuu says, tired and apparently harmless-sounding enough for the redhead to pay him no mind. He resists the urge to scream, because he fancies himself better than that, and because it's probably what Akabane wants out of him, anyways, and Gakushuu doesn't quite feel like giving him the satisfaction.

See, the first coincidence is this: they've been put in the same class in Kunugigaoka for 10th grade, and, frankly, Gakushuu would like to call bullshit on that and say it's one of his father's latest attempts at making his life miserable, but unfortunately father is not the principal anymore, and is, therefore, repulsively blameless.

It's an entire half an hour before Akabane decides he's had his fun, and he plops ungracefully onto Gakushuu's bed, asking, "So? What do you wanna do?"

Gakushuu has taken Akabane's place on his desk chair by now, checking to see if the demon left anything incrimating or dangerous anywhere. When he's satisfied, he looks up and replies, "The project, possibly, if you're up to it."

He means that sarcastically, of course, but he should've expected to be met with a shit-eating grin irritating enough that only Akabane could conjure it up. "Nah, don't think I am."

The second coincidence, he thinks through grit teeth as he imagines the boy who was making a mess of the neatly arranged pillows on his bed combust into flames, was decided the moment they were born into their respective families; not only were the two of them placed in the same class, but they were also the only two students whose surnames began with 'A'. Gakushuu shudders, remembering how he felt at the exact moment their biology teacher announced that the project would be done in pairs, and that the pairs would be alphabetical.

"Well," Gakushuu says, a storm brewing behind the smile he presented Akabane with, "That is why I invited you over, so that's not really an option."

"Since you seem to be confused, allow me to remind you that you said," he clears his throat and gives a horrid imitation of Gakushuu's voice, "If you're up for it. Now, forgive me if I've overestimated your ability at comprehension, but that implies that you did, in fact, give me an option."

The third, and frankly, only coincidence that he supposes he had sway over, was the fact that Karma's house's AC system had broken at some point before the schoolyear started, and Gakushuu starts to think of how concerning it is that it's been so long and it hasn't been fixed yet, but then he remembers that he doesn't actually give a shit. Still, he now reassesses his decision and asks himself if it really would've been worse to tolerate the discomfort of a little heat over the discomfort of having Akabane in his house and in his room.

"I'd have thought you'd understand the basic concept of rhetorical phrases, so I guess we're both guilty of overestimating each other," he shoots back, still smiling, and he thinks that no, it would not at all have been worse to suffer through the heat.

It takes another five minutes before Gakushuu eventually gets Akabane to cooperate and give his own ideas, and even then he's had to use to use veiled insults at least thrice, but in the two hours before Akabane has to leave, they're productive enough for Gakushuu to believe they can work together without murdering each other.

-•°•-

Gakushuu is absolutely, incredibly wrong.

It takes him an astounding amount of self control not grabbing the pencil sitting on his shelf and stabbing Akabane in the shoulder with it. The imbecile's been laughing his ass off for a whole twelve minutes(yes, he counted), and even Gakushuu can't believe the extent of 'unamused' he's reached.

"For fuck's sake," he mutters, low enough not to be heard, and then raises his voice to say, "It can't honestly be that funny."

Akabane stops mid-chuckle to stare at him from inside his closet, holding up the tattered and dusty Nemo plushie he'd found just a little while before, and tells Gakushuu, "You're wrong. It is absolutely that funny."

Gakushuu doesn't even understand. It isn't embarrassing to him, and he's got no attachment to the toy. It's simply an old, worn-out plushie that hasn't seen the light of day for just about half a decade. What joy does Akabane see in finding it?

When he gets all the laughter out of him, Akabane begins tossing the plushie up and down on his way out of Gakushuu's closet. "By the way, I got the clay already. Sculpting tools are pretty difficult to find, though, but I'll keep looking."

Ah, yes, the project. "That's fine," Gakushuu says, "I've got a scalpel and this weird pencil needle thingy from a craft shop I went to once. We can substitute most of those materials, I think."

The plan was to make an interactive replica of the digestive system, wherein if you put a particular type of object in the mouth area, it would accurately go through the digestive process. Akabane had suggested they make a mechanism for it to come out as poop when the process was over. He promptly got shot down.

They keep talking over their plans, and Akabane sets the plushie on the bed as Gakushuu dictates their schedule for the project. He complains and sticks his tongue out immaturely every so often, like when Gakushuu suggests they start early on a Saturday so they can get more done.

Eventually, they come to a compromise, and it was hard-won on Gakushuu's end, but it was a compromise nonetheless, and Akabane leaves after setting one of Gakushuu's scratch papers on fire "by accident". 

\--

They do meet again on a Saturday, but rather than the 8:30AM schedule Gakushuu had wanted, it's late in the afternoon. The sun is almost setting when Akabane notices something and asks, "Hey, Asano, he's still on your bed."

"What?" Gakushuu replies, eyes still on the paper where he's trying to sketch out the proportions of their replica.

"Y'know, our good friend Nemo."

Right. Gakushuu shrugs, because he'd honestly just forgotten the toy was even there at all. He thinks he fell asleep on his desk last night, somewhere around reviewing his Trigonometry worksheet and writing his short essay for English.

"Why'd you even keep him?" Akabane asks. He's prone to doing that, Gakushuu had noted at some point, and he thinks it should bother him, but it doesn't, really. 

He shrugs. "I don't know? Aesthetic purposes? I liked the movie, and I liked him because he was the same color as my hair."

"That's cute."

They both freeze at that. It isn't about the phrasing, Gakushuu knows, because just like with asking questions, Akabane is prone to teasing, so that's nothing new. It was something about the tone of his voice, Gakushuu thinks, because it was openly and honestly said, like Akabane's lack of impulse control finally got the better of him and he let slip a nice thing to say because he barely ever thinks things through.

Gakushuu hardly had the time to appreciate the sincerity, though, because evidently Akabane was far too attached to his role of "delinquent who never breaks his cool", looking Gakushuu straight in the eye and laughing as he says, "Look at that, I finally got a reaction out of you. Didn't think you'd get all caught up in being called cute, though; I figured that was more of Sakakibara's thing."

Ugh, Gakushuu's mind supplies for him as he throws his eraser at Akabane and begins scolding him for not helping.

-•°•-

They're about 40% done with the project at this point. Karma tells him, "It isn't due for another month so why are we almost halfway done? You suck so much, you know that, Asano?"

"Well," Gakushuu says as he mixes acryllics to get the exact shade of 'large intestine' that he wants, "I'm stuck with a lazy asshole for a partner, so I guess we're both miserable. Hooray, equity."

They've reached a point, Gakushuu thinks to himself as he adds more white to the mix of paints, where they can insult each other without it having to be thinly veiled or backhanded. They've now reached a point where they can stab each other in the front, if you will.

It's quiet for a bit, with Gakushuu finishing his mix and Akabane trying to shape out the esophagus, and then Akabane says, "Karma."

"Yes, that's you. Good job knowing your own name." He fake applauds for the hell of it.

"No, dipshit." Akabane rolls his eyes like he's in any position to be the one annoyed. "Just call me Karma; Akabane's a fucking mouthful."

"See, by your logic," Gakushuu starts, developing that particular smart-ass tone that he knows gets on Akabane's-- Karma's nerves, "You're free to continue calling me Asano, since it's the same number of syllables and all."

"Nah," Karma replies smoothly, subverting expectation as he is wont to do. "What organ do you want me to work on after this, Gakushuu?"

Gakushuu remains unbothered and doesn't miss a beat, telling him to do the small intestine next.

-•°•-

Eventually, it gets cold enough that Gakushuu can't work without a jacket, and he tells Karma, "Why don't we work on the project at your house?"

They're walking together, headed to his house to try putting together all the pieces that they've finished. They do that now, often enough that people no longer question it. At some point everyone had been baffled that they could even stand in each other's presence peacefully, let alone actually spend that much time together, but as of right now even the Virtuosos aren't surprised to find Karma waiting for Gakushuu to finish putting away his things after class.

Karma stiffens, slightly enough that someone who wasn't him probably wouldn't have noticed, but Gakushuu says nothing of it. Eventually, after a long pause and some apparent hesitation, Karma says, "Uh, sure."

He starts walking faster, a nervous habit that Gakushuu has noticed, but eventually he begins slowing down and talking about stupid things like animals who talk and plants with feelings, and Gakushuu has to remind himself that clocking this idiot in the face won't be anywhere near enough to get him to shut up.

-•°•-

Surprisingly enough, Karma's house is very near and tidy, if not for a bit of dust gathering around most of the shelves. When he says as much, Karma informs him, "That's because you're in the living room. If you want a change in opinion, you're welcome to go explore my room."

Gakushuu sets down the box of material's he'd been carrying on the table in front of him, and he says, "Hard pass, sorry."

He was curious, sure, but he figured that once he saw any sort of mess, he'd be tempted to clean it up, and that wouldn't be productive to the project at all. Karma shrugs, telling him that it was his loss, and heads to the kitchen.

Gakushuu decides to use this moment to look around. He rethinks his previous assessment of the place; it isn't so much neat and tidy as it is barren and hollow. There were hardly any picture frames, a sharp contrast to the impractical lack of wall space caused by his father hanging all his certificates and honors around their house. The furniture is all minimalistic in both design and accesory. There were no ornaments anywhere, no flowers or embroidery. It was all much removed from what Gakushuu was used to.

He supposes he isn't quite in the place to ask, though, so when Karma returns and sets two mugs on the table, he says nothing.

Karma shoves the other mug towards him, and it tastes perfect. "What the fuck? How do you know how I make my coffee?"

"Observational skills, dumbass." Karma raises his own glass and sips, and when it forms a small mustache above his upper lip, Gakushuu is amused to realize that he's drinking strawberry milk. "Seriously, dude, 2 creams and 1 sugar isn't a hard combination to remember. Especially not for a genius like me."

Gakushuu snorts at that, beginning to empty out the box he'd brought, and comments, "The same 'genius' who got a mark below me in our most recent Chemistry quiz? That genius, hm?"

It isn't really a sore subject or anything he's seriously proud of, but Karma pokes and prods him all the time, and he thinks he should give as good as he gets. Karma flicks him on the forehead, lightly enough not to hurt, and he adopts a scolding tone of voice when he says, "Did your parents never teach you any manners? I made you a drink, so you should thank me."

Gakushuu bites back a remark about his parents only ever teaching him manners in terms of etiquette and not values, and it probably shows on his face, because Karma goes from teasing to quizzical in matter of seconds. He isn't really the best at social cues because of it, but still, he doesn't really want Karma to ask, so he just says, "Thank you so much for making me coffee. It must've cost you such a great deal."

Paired with an eyeroll, his sarcasm bleeds through easily enough, and the atmosphere somewhat goes back to how it was before.

After finishing their drinks, they begin working on the more complicated mechanisms of the project, and the silence is comfortable enough that Gakushuu is actually suprised when Karma breaks it.

"I know you're curious about it," he begins, and Gakushuu side-eyes him from his position sitting right next to Karma, "So I might as well tell you: my parents aren't really home a lot. They like to travel all around, so there's really no need for the pageantry of internal decor if you're not really gonna be having guests at home, you know?"

Gakushuu hums. He sees the logic in that, but it doesn't stop him from thinking that the house looks melancholy all the same. It fades back to quiet again, after a while, and apparently Karma doesn't really like that very much, so he begins going on about his parents and their adventures. Gakushuu listens intently, and he thinks that there's a yearning in the way Karma tells these stories that Karma might not want to admit, or even know of.

He gets it, sort of. His dad isn't quite physically neglectful as he is emotionally detached, but he understands the loneliness all the same, and Karma's voice becomes a pleasant little backgroud noise to their project-making until it's time for Gakushuu to leave.

\--

"Can you pass me the glue gun, Shuu?"

Gakushuu freezes from testing the machinations of the stomach area to pass Karma a prompt glance, and he asks straighforwardly, "What the fuck did you just call me?"

Karma has that face again, the one Gakushuu sees too often and identifies as the "bullshit explanation time" face. "I've been thinking about it, and I've come to the conclusion that you were right."

"I don't disagree about me being right," Gakushuu says, because he can be a piece of shit, too, but Karma ignores that and continues.

"There's no point in calling you Gakushuu, since it's the same amount of syllables as Asano, so, ever the problem-solver I am, I fixed it for us!"

Gakushuu almost has to laugh, because the idiot actually sounds genuinely enthused by his little achievement. "Nope, I don't condone this."

Karma is much like a pet cat, Gakushuu realizes, what with his incessant need for attention and his horrible sense of hygiene. Now, there's the way he streches from one and of the table to another, to bump his head onto Gakushuu's shoulder and whine, "Shuuuuuu."

"We aren't doing this, Karma," Gakushuu says, with a finality he doesn't really mean, because with all these meetings and walks home together, he's gotten used to Karma's antics, and he finds that they're mostly tolerable, with some even being, dare he say, amusing. 

"Ugh," Karma says, raising his head to meet Gakushuu's eyes, and that's another cat-like thing about Karma, isn't it? His golden eyes that look at Gakushuu with an annoyance that isn't actually sincere. "You're actually no fun. Why can't I call you that?"

He pouts, to match the rest of his expression, and Gakushuu says the first thing that comes to mind: "We aren't even friends."

He says it the same way Karma had said "that's cute" all those weeks ago, just something off the top of his head and not really something he thought through, but it was clearly honest. Pity that Karma's physical recoil at the response made Gakushuu parse through what he just said and realize that it was hardly accurate anymore.

The air in the room has changed, clearly at that. Karma furrows his brows and gets up to grab the glue gun on his own, and they continue working in silence.

It's strange and uncomfortable. It's so quiet that it feels wrong, and hey, shouldn't he be thankful that Karma finally shut up? He passes a glance at Karma's direction, and Gakushuu is wordlessly ignored by him.

He isn't thankful at all.

-•°•-

It's weird now, and Gakushuu knows this, because the two of them only needed to meet one more time for the finalizations of the project, and then it would be done, but neither of them have initiated contact with each other since Karma had said, "See you" to him as he left that last time they met.

At school, where Karma had begun taking the liberty to eat lunch with him every so often, or bump their shoulders together in class just to laugh when people get surprised at Gakushuu's lack of discomfort, they hardly even pass each other by anymore.

They're classmates, so of course they can't avoid seeing each other all the time, but even in classes where they're free to choose their seats, Karma doesn't take the opportunity to sit next to him anymore. 

The strange thing about it is, in Gakushuu's opinion, how greatly it bothers him, how unsettled he is by the fact that the idiot he didn't want anything to do with when the school year began somehow managed to morph his position into Gakushuu's life from rival, to annoyance, to whatever this was in the span of a few weeks.

He's interrupted from his self-reflection by Ren, who's seated directly in front of him as they use their remaining few minutes of lunchtime to review for their upcoming Physics test.

"Did you two have a fight or something?" Ren asks him, peering up from the thick and heavy book he'd been reading. Gakushuu fixes him a puzzled expression.

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Y'know," Ren says, apparently giving up on his book by shutting it closed with a thud and setting it down on the table. He's never been a fan of the subject, anyways, much preferring the more linguistic lessons they have at school, "You and Akabane."

"Ah," Gakushuu says, "Well, that would imply we got along well enough to get into a fight, wouldn't it?"

So Ren's noticed, then. Well, Gakushuu wouldn't really put it past him. It wouldn't really take a Virtuoso to realize, would it? Still, it would take someone ballsy to ask, and Ren isn't quite so courageous as he is Gakushuu's best friend, so Gakushuu has to remind himself that Ren has the right to ask.

"Don't be dumb, Asano, because you aren't dumb." Upon hearing that, Gakushuu has to push back thoughts of how much of a testament to his closeness to Karma it is that he gets to call Gakushuu by his first name when even Ren doesn't do that. Fuck guilt, honestly, because it was a useless emotion and it was starting to well up inside him.

"He just... gave an unexpectedly unproportionate response to something I said." 

Well, that wasn't quite true. Gakushuu tries to imagine their situations in reverse. What if he was the one on the receiving end of a comment like that? He thinks he'd have handled it better than straight up just ignoring someone, but... yeah, okay, it would've probably hurt a bit to hear.

"And does it bother you?" Ren asks. 

"Does what bother me?"

"The way he responded," Ren says simply, and Gakushuu has to pause and mull that over, narrowing his eyes and pressing his lips together, because the answer is easy but the reasoning behind it is difficult.

Of course it bothers him that Karma's avoiding him now, because just a few days ago they were poking fun at each other, and making jokes, and sharing things that normally weren't the sorts of conversation topics you told someone you didn't consider a friend. They were well on their way to getting along perfectly, to having their broken edges crash into each other enough times that they fit together nicely, and Gakushuu can't believe that he insulted the sanctity of that with something that he couldn't possible have meant.

The bell rings, and Ren gets up. He doesn't seem to want an answer anymore, or he's already gotten his answer by looking Gakushuu in the face and seeing his distress. Ren's classroom is closer, so Gakushuu drops him off their and then walks to his own class, drowning in the notion that he's gotten used to having someone walk beside him.

-•°•- 

As these things go, Gakushuu finds Karma sitting under the shade of a tree. The other boy looks content enough, eyes closed and hands behind his head, and Gakushuu almost falters.

Almost, because he's already spent weeks on end with Karma and he knows that the redhead twists his lips to the left when he's concentrating and taps his fingers on any surface he can find when he's bored, knows that they've been toeing the line between friendship or not for a long time now, and they'd crossed it long before Gakushuu made that stupid claim of his. He can't falter now, can he?

"My favorite movie is Finding Nemo."

Of all things, certainly Karma wouldn't be expecting that, would he? Either way, the redhead doesn't react, doesn't deign to move or open his eyes. He just stays there, and Gakushuu sighs and gets down to sit next to him.

It's then that Karma finally reacts, humming in thought and speaking with a finality that just wasn't hostile. He just says it like an afterthought, like Gakushuu's presence is hardly worth noting, and isn't that the most infuriating thing of all?

"You weren't invited."

Gakushuu realizes as much of course, but he's already got his mind set on this, so he puts his hands in his lap and bites his lip. "My favorite movie when I was a kid was 'Finding Nemo'."

It's so unsettlingly silent, but Gakushuu pays that no mind. Whatever, right? Karma will listen to him if he wants to, and if he doesn't... well, Gakushuu'll just have to accept that he's burned this bridge to the ground and there's no rebuilding it.

"I liked him because he was orange, and my hair was orange, and that stuffed toy wasn't the only thing I owned from the movie." Gakushuu runs a hand through his hair; this was, as shocked as he is to admit it, frightening. "My bedsheets were printed with tiny clownfish, and so was my favorite blanket."

It was completely fair, of course, that he was the one struggling, because he was in the wrong, and for all he could talk, Karma could just as easily shoot him down. Curiously, he wonders why he hasn't yet been shot down, and if nothing else, he'd like to think that the fact that Karma was still listening meant something.

He heaves a deep sigh. Christ, they really must be friends if he's about to admit this. "I... that wasn't the only reason I liked him, though. I think a huge part of me just liked his... dad."

He's loathe to admit how his voice cracked on that last word, but he soldiers on. "I liked Marlin, more than Nemo actually, because he was caring. Unnecessarily overprotective, to be sure, but I-- he swam through an entire ocean for his son, you know? And, well. The part of me that believed my dad would do the same for me... that part was just-- dying, a little bit."

He doesn't say that that part's all dead now, has been dead since that day that he flew across a classroom after his dad had struck him right in front of all his peers. He doesn't say it, and he doubts he needs to.

Maybe it was how imperfect the whole of that short spiel was, how his voice had cracked and how he stuttered at some parts. Maybe it was the hesitation, that doubt that signalled he was legitimately revealing all the parts of him beneath the impeccable Gakushuu Asano image that he's built up for himself. Whatever it was, it seemed to work, because now Karma was opening his eyes, turning to him.

"What-- what even was the point of all that?"

Clearly, that statement was said to induce pain. It was a knife aimed at the aspects of Gakushuu that he left vulnerable enough to be struck, and while it was effective enough for him to grit his teeth, it was nowhere near enough to get him to back down.

"I was wrong." Holy shit, that really just came out of his mouth, didn't it? 

"We are friends, because I wouldn't have told anyone what I just said now. I wouldn't know your favorite brand of strawberry juicebox, or where you'd wanna go if you could travel the world, or why you wear your uniform blazer like that... if we weren't friends. I wouldn't have come here to apologize if we weren't friends."

It takes a good second for Karma to get all of that, but when he does, he smiled that shit-eating grin of his that Gakushuu can't say he didn't miss.

"I realized you were slow, as evidenced by this entire predicament, but I feel I should inform you: you haven't actually apologized yet."

It's there in his tone of voice, and slight pinch of his lips, and the way his eyes glint; Karma is teasing him, and by God, as strange as it was, Gakushuu could breathe easier for it. 

We're okay now.

"I'm sorry," he says, simple as can be, and he finds himself developing a grin that matched Karma's own. "I'm so sorry that I can never grow to be as intellectual as you."

"Okay, I dig the praise but this is starting to get weird." Karma leans further into the tree trunk. "Besides, what's the point of you saying that if I know that nobody's gonna believe me if I tell them?"

Gakushuu leans into the tree with him, and he tells Karma, "Just this once, I'm gonna be nice and let you record it. You can broadcast it to the whole school if you want. You forgive me?"

"I forgive you," Karma says, followed by a gleeful laugh, and the sound is music to Gakushuu's ears.

**Author's Note:**

> Hii!! This is the first thing I've ever posted. It's for a less popular ship, honestly, and I don't think it's all that good, but I really hope someone found enjoyment in it. Thanks for reading until the end!


End file.
